Many modern beverage containers, e.g. for soda, beer, juice and cordials, as well as pharmaceutical, toiletry and other household items, are bottles with twist- and pry-off caps, or cans with lift-tabs. Consumers open such containers using a variety of tools ranging from the common pry-off cap openers, to more recent types of openers developed for twist-off caps, which commonly feature recesses for engaging the caps' outer surfaces, as in U.S. Pat. No. 3,812,741. For the lift-tabs of cans, tools are available with sockets for receiving these tabs, as in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,412,464; 4,253,352; 4,373,223; 4,409,863; and 4,309,921. The wisdom of using such openers for removing not only pry type crown caps, but twist-off caps and the lift-tabs on cans as well, has long been recognized for avoiding injury to hands and fingers which can be occasioned by stubborn caps, often with jagged metal edges. Also, it has been appreciated that the added force such tools bring to bear in the re-closing of twist caps creates a tighter seal, thereby prolonging the life of their contents, carbonated beverages in particular.
Previous inventors have recognized the advantage of combining some of these functions in one tool, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,414,865 which has both the twist-off and lift-tab opener features described above. Another combination tool is found in U.S. Pat. No. Des. 238,411, combining twist-off and pry-off functions. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 4,433,597 is a combination bottle cap opener for prying or twisting off crown caps, however without means for opening non-crown type twist-off caps, nor a feature for the stay-on tabs of cans.
While some inventors have further recognized the commercial market (e.g. airlines, bars and restaurants) for a combination opener in addition to its individual consumer market, none have developed a feature for opening the smaller, individual cordial bottles widely provided by such establishments. Since the caps on these bottles are too small for the more standard recesses of the openers disclosed above, flight attendants and other beverage service personnel are relegated to opening these bottles with their hands. This inconvenience is made worse by the fact that individual cordial bottles are inherently more difficult to grip because of their diminutive size. Furthermore, these smaller beverage bottle caps have size equivalents in many other household products, e.g. certain toiletries, pharmaceuticals and grocery items. The "decapping tool" disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 1,841,270 to Aeschbach et al. includes a centrally apertured, generally V-shaped frame having straight, converging inner edges with saw-toothed projections, the converging edges defining an aperture which can accommodate jars of various sizes when inserted at the appropriate point within the V-shaped aperture. The tool is to be mounted to a wall or counter for stationery use relative to the containers it is opening, and appears to be designed for twist-caps ranging in size from those on ketchup bottles to those on "wide-mouth" jars. Even at its most convergent point, however, it does not appear to fit twist-caps of individual cordial bottle size; it is more designed for permanent kitchen use than for toting and opening receptacles anywhere.
French Pat. No. 2,221,942 issued to Rossler discloses a hand-held bottle opener having a generally flat, V-shaped frame which surrounds a flat, recessed core (i.e., the core is flush with the frame from one face of the opener, recessed from the other). This core also ludes a generally trapezoidal cutout extending between the arms of the "V" at roughly the mid-section of the opener, the parallel sides of such opening being designed for prying tapered crown caps off individual beverage bottles in the conventional manner, viz., one parallel edge pries from beneath the lip of the cap, while the opposite side applies opposite pressure at the cap's top. This function is performed from the flush face of the opener only, while the twist-off function can be performed only from the recessed face, requiring a 180 degree flip between functions.
For the twist-off function of the Rossler patent, one of the non-parallel sides of the trapezoidal cutout is formed with serrations. Twist-caps are to be inserted into the recessed face anywhere along this serrated segment, and the opener rotated clockwise on the cap for removal. But while twist-caps of more than one size can be accommodated within the convergent frame (much as in the Aeschbach patent described above), the range of sizes actually accommodated is even more limited than in the Aeschbach patent. The range in the Rossler patent is dependent upon the length of the serrated segment along one inner edge of the "V", which is also the width (i.e., non-parallel side) of the trapezoidal cutout. This dimension, however, must always be smaller than the diameter of the average crown bottle cap in order for the pry-off function to work. Thus, the range of caps accommodated is relatively limited, and in any event the opener would not appear to work with cordial-sized caps.